3/4 length,seated. Sitter is wearing a black dress with white lace collar centered with a brooch. She wears a white lace cap tied with a blue ribbon bow under the chin. She holds a book in her left hand.

Curatorial Statement

Dilah Kohn played a pivotal role in the history of Jewish Chicago. The widowed Kohn arrived here in 1847. Her strict observance of Jewish dietary laws meant that she ate little, as kosher meat was not then available in Chicago. Her weakening condition prompted her son, Abraham, and other family members to form Kehilath Anshe Ma’ariv; in doing so, they used the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) that Dilah had given her sons before they left Bavaria. In this portrait, Dilah is wearing a white head covering, a mark of Jewish piety, and holds a small Hebrew Bible. She and many other Chicagoans died in the cholera epidemic of 1849.